Pro-Cooling... South Dakota Style!

[Orkan]

First blizzard of the year has arrived. Knocking out power and utilities around the state. Here is the view from my shop window:


Should duct my water loop to a radiator outside for the winter.
FYI - this is not a photo-chop... it really is that bad! hehe Not sure what the idiot in the red car was thinking. We tried to push her out... but no way. There is an inch of solid ice under the snow. I got a 4x4 and even I was smart enough to not go out.

[BillA]

jeez,
82 here yesterday (Houston)

[Bigredhog]

I do believe if you hang a PA 160 out the window you should see a slight drop in your temps. LOL

[Brians256]

The temps may not drop as much as you'd think, Bigredhog. Flow rates really suffer when the rad has solid ice in it.

[BillA]

lol

[pHaestus]

Ya I thought about doing the same when I moved to saskatoon (outside cooling). At -40C though things become tricky. I would think a steel reservoir with agitation coming from a high capacity pump would probably do better than a radiator in systems like this?

[Orkan]

If you ran good anti-freeze, a radiator would be optimal. A steel tank, even with a 500GPH pump hammering water through it... will still start to freeze from the outside in. Good rad, good anti-freeze = subzero WC from mother nature.

Sure as hell won't have to worry about algae growth! The storm has gotten worse since that picture.

Notice the ice on the power lines? ... it was the size of a golf ball in that picture. Now the ice is the size of a baseball. The power lines look like core samples from a glacier or something...

[Bigredhog]

Well theres a whole new cottage industry. Computer cooling radiator de-iceing systems. Any investors????? LOL

[Spot]

How about putting the whole rig out with really long monitor, keyboard, mouse cables, we can do away with the whole WC system. It's about 32deg Celsius here, i.e. about 90deg F......now where are my sunglasses......

[9mmCensor]

Man thats nice weather. Thats like a warm Canadian summer.

[Nugit]

Problems with ice you say? Not my picture, so I don't know the circumstances. This however, happens.

Your best bet at procooling is using a standard aircooled pc, and putting the whole thing outside. At too much below freezing you might need heating on some parts af the motherboard as they cannot opperate at too low temps.

[jaydee]

Yeah, we are supposed to get a few inches tonight. Hope we get a foot so I can stay home tomorrow.

[maxSaleen]

Whoa! Glad I live in florida now. I remember those days when I lived in Chicago. The entrance to our house was BELOW ground level (by about 3'), meaning that every time we got a heavy snow, we'd have to dig our way out of the house. Don't miss that part a bit.

Actually putting the whole thing outside would be a really bad idea. Hard drive would crack...errr... shatter upon spin up, MOSFETs wouldn't function very well, nor would the caps or memory.